Refracted Reality
by JMYoda
Summary: AU: Just when you think you have life well in hand, the unexpected happens.


Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist, please do not sue me. As I am just a poor college student you wouldn't get much anyway. I will admit that the first two lines (aside from the name) I got from the television show Roswell, which I also do not own.

A/N: To my readers. This is my first attempt at a Full Metal Alchemist fic. Interestingly enough the plotline was the result of being stuck in a Saturn dealership for an hour with my good friend and Beta (for this story anyway) Inuki-Chan09. Now, on with the story!

Warnings: AU, juvenile name-calling, possible OOC

Refracted Reality

Chapter 1: Fade to Black

My name is Edward Heiderich and last night I died. Then the most amazing thing happened: I started to live. It had started off just like any other night, hanging out with the local college students getting drunk out of our minds. It was all fun and games until somebody got hurt. Unfortunately for me, it was apparently my turn to play Russian roulette. I lost. I'll be honest, I didn't see it coming. We were young and foolish, convinced of our own invincibility. We were walking home from a Frat party, me and three of my roommates. It was late at night on a path we had traveled hundreds of times. It should have been no big deal. We had just reached the old rusted bridge connecting the two sides of town; I lived only a street or two past the bridge.

"Hey guys look at the guard rail."

Lucas, a blue-eyed blond that measured in at 178 cm (5'10") and had inherited a small fortune from his family, pointed to the guard rail he was currently observing.

"That guard rail's taller than our dear little Edward. It's kind of sad when even things designed to rest at an average person's waist are taller than you Ed."

Niklas laughed at Fynn as he bent his knees until he was the same height as Ed and proceeded to walk around in a funny manner, almost falling on his ass in the process.

"Yeah, you'd think you'd be taller with the fake limbs and all."

Fynn and Lucas laughed in agreement. Sometimes I really hate these guys. Fynn, himself measuring at 183 centimeters (6 feet), always found my own height of 165 cm (5'5") amusing. It's not like the other two were that much taller than me either. Niklas was only 173 cm (5'8"). Between the laughing, the joke, and Fynn's demonstration…I snapped.

"Who you calling a shrimp so tiny he'd have to wear 10 foot stilts just to look eye to eye with a kindergartener!?!"

My heated rant caused another round of hiccupping laughter from the drunken guys. Ok, so I admit it. I'm slightly sensitive about my height and the prosthetic limbs. The limbs are the result of an accident from my early childhood. I don't remember the accident at all…only that it killed Mom and my baby brother. Even to this day whenever Dad looks at me and sees the prosthetic limbs, one arm and one leg, he gets a pained and slightly guilty look on his face…as though it was somehow his fault. In the heat of the moment I did maybe the most idiotic thing I had ever done in my life. I jumped up onto the ledge. In the midst of my rant about those who dare to insult me, I momentarily lost my footing and tilted backwards. It wasn't much and it wasn't for long, but it was enough. With one prosthetic leg it was not hard to fall backwards off of the ledge and into the icy waters of the river running below. That's right. I, Edward Heiderich, boy genius, falls off a bridge. As I fell into the freezing depths of the river I heard my friends calling my name with concern. My last conscious thought as my eyesight began to darken was that I didn't know how to swim.

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Birds were singing. That was the first thought I had as I slowly woke up.

'Who the hell gave them permission to be so cheerful?'

Yes, I'm not exactly what one would call a morning person. Wait, birds? There aren't any birds around my apartment complex, just busy streets and loud cars with obnoxious drivers. What was going on? I eventually gathered enough energy to open my eyes. Realistically, it had probably only been about 30 seconds between the sound of the birds and my eyes opening, but it seemed like a lifetime. Stupid alcohol, I'm never letting those crazy friends of mine take me out to another bar in my life.

Opening my eyes, I saw a rather strange sight. A very short irritable looking old woman and a young woman with long blond hair were staring at me. The old crone looked very strange indeed. By short I mean short even in comparison to me…wait a second I just called myself short! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I AM NOT SHORT!!! I AM NOT SHORT!!! I AM NOT SHORT!!!

Ok, mini rant over. As I was saying, a midget old crone with hair that stuck up straight in the back. The girl on the other hand was tall and thin…and strangely enough brandishing a wrench? What is up with that? The three of us continued to stare at each other for several minutes until one of us finally broke the silence.

"Well, you seem to be in a bit of a predicament young man."

It of course would be the old crone.

"Yeah, I guess I would seem to be. I would really appreciate it if you could contact the science department at the University of Munich; my father is a member of the faculty."

"Munich? Never heard of it. You seem a bit confused. What did you do anyway, jump into the river and try to drown yourself?"

This time it was the blond that spoke.

"Of course not, that would be idiotic, I fell." I said indignantly.

"Never mind that now. Winry, help me carry him back to the shop, we'll fix him up a bit."

"The shop?"

They owned and operated a shop? Well, I guess I've heard of stranger things than two women owning and operating a shop.

"Yes, Winry and I are automail mechanics."

"Automail?"

"Yes, automail. I know its cutting edge technology, but surely you've heard of it before."

The blond, Winry, said this with an air of incredulity. Apparently she thought it strange I had never heard of this auto whatever it was. I wonder if it has to do with cars.

"Hmm…we should call in the Doc from town to check him out just in case; maybe he hit his head."

"I'm right here! Don't talk as though I can't hear you!"

That's another thing that really pisses me off; people talking around you, as though you weren't even there.

"Well somebody woke up on the wrong side of the riverbed this morning."

Winry reached down to help me stand. At this point she also picked up and handed the other woman the prosthetics that had been destroyed by the trip through the river.

"This is odd. I haven't seen prosthetics like these in years. I'll guess you don't get much if any mobility with them. You might want to think about switching to automail. The procedure's painful but you would have almost if not total mobility with them. In addition to that, the automail is much more durable than these prosthetics or even a flesh and blood limb. If you don't mind my asking, what caused you to lose your arm and leg?"

"No, I don't mind. It was some sort of accident years ago. I can't remember it at all. For as far back as I can remember I've always had a form of these prosthetics."

And so the three tottered off towards the shop. Passing slowly through the town and its surrounding countryside I noticed with dismay that I did not recognize anything. I was sure that this town and countryside were nowhere near where I had fallen into the river. But how was that possible?

END CHAPTER 1

Well, there it is, Chapter 1. Please review! I love getting feedback. It lets me know people are actually reading my story.


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